Mihin Lanka (Colombo International) has revised a lease agreement, signed with the Air Lease Corporation (ALC) early last year, concerning two B737-800s which were to have been delivered in June and July of this year.
Sri Lanka's Sunday Times quotes the airline's former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nishantha Ranatunga, as saying that after protracted negotiations, the US lessor agreed to switch out the B737s in favour of two A320neo and one A319-100. According to Ranatunga, Mihin management successfully argued that the cost of introducing Boeing (BOE, Washington National) aircraft into Mihin's all-Airbus fleet would have proven prohibitively expensive.
Despite his departure, Ranatunga said the loss-making carrier was on track to register its first profits in 2017 with the ongoing implementation of a restructuring programme devised by the airline itself.
While the LCC suffered operational losses of USD 1.2 million in April 2014, it was able to register a profit for the following quarter following which it has yo-yoed back and forth between profit and loss in successive quarters.
SriLanka's new government has already proposed merging Mihin with SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International) in a bid to consolidate and return them to longterm profitability.
